The invention relates to a container for a liquid, solid, paste or powder cosmetic product including an applicator member that is inserted in a tubular storage element when the product is not being applied; it relates in particular, although not exclusively, to containers for lipstick, mascara, lip-gloss, foundation, eye shadow or blusher, and even nail varnish. Lipstick containers conventionally comprise an applicator element including a support carrying a stick of lipstick, a tubular body (of circular or other section) in which the support may be moved axially, at will, to deploy the lipstick or to retract it into the tubular body, and a tubular storage element forming a cap cooperating with the tubular body to enclose and protect the stick when the user does not need to use it.
Diverse structures have been proposed for lipstick containers of the above kind, differing according to whether movement of the support is driven directly or indirectly.
The family of lipstick containers with directly driven supports includes those that include a spring compressed between the bottom of the tubular body and the bottom of the support so that the support is spring-loaded continuously toward the exterior of the tubular body, which makes it obligatory to control the effect of the spring. In this regard there may be cited the document U.S. Pat. No. 2,486,960 which describes a support retained by friction in an elliptical body the clamping force whereof is reduced on each closure of the cap, which allows the spring to move the support forward toward the outlet of the tubular body. There may also be cited the document FR-A-1 011 995 in which movement in translation of the support is driven by direct action on a lateral projection of that support passing through a slot formed in the wall of the tubular body and on which the cap acts in the direction of retraction into the interior of the tubular body when the cap is screwed on.
Direct drive through action on a lateral projection may instead be obtained without the intervention of a spring, as disclosed in particular in the document U.S. Pat. No. 3,954,114 (in which a lid must be opened synchronously with movement in translation of the lipstick) or the document U.S. Pat. No. 4,182,945.
Instead of a lateral projection attached to the support, the document U.S. Pat. No. 3,989,392 proposes a fixed axis thumbwheel accessible from the outside through an opening in the wall of the body and cooperating with a rack attached to the support.
These solutions using a thumbwheel or a lateral projection that is moved longitudinally have the particular drawback that they do not offer any protection against unintentional operation, for example if the projection or the thumbwheel catches on an adjacent object in a bag or pocket.
Another principle of direct drive of movement of the lipstick is described in the document U.S. Pat. No. 4,621,935, where deployment of the stick is driven by pressing directly on the bottom of the support of the stick, through a hole formed in the bottom of the tubular body, which requires that the latter be of large section, to avoid the user having to employ a tool when most of the lipstick has been used up. Note that nothing is provided for retracting the stick into the tubular body, with the result that the stick projects therefrom at all times; what is more, the opening in the bottom of the tubular body has the two-fold drawback of being somewhat unaesthetic and of constituting a trap for dust and other detritus.
In the situation, that is currently more frequent, of indirectly driven movement of the lipstick, the tubular body, sometimes called the cartridge, comprises a wall and a mobile base rotation whereof relative to the wall drives axial movement in translation of the support and the lipstick inside the wall, thanks to appropriate guide ribs. To facilitate manipulation by the user, the base is in practice made larger than the wall and it is against the annular edge connecting the base to the wall that the free edge of the cap abuts when the latter is in the closed position, capping the tubular body.
In this regard see in particular the documents GB-834 486 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,515,493 and the more recent document EP-A-1 293 146.
Generally speaking, in indirect drive containers the enlarged base of the tubular body remains outside the cap so as to remain accessible to the user, and the risk therefore remains of unintended separation of the cap and the base. To avoid this risk, and to ensure effective closure of the cap onto the tubular body, it is standard practice to lock the cap either by screwing it on or by clipping it on, but opening the container then requires the user to execute a combination of movements. In the case of the document GB-834 486 cited above, a cap is used that is completely closed by a cover and fitting the cover prevents the tubular body from being deployed by a compression spring; the tubular body is completely concealed by the cap and its cover, which protects it from all external action, although the risk of unintended operation remains since the cover can be opened by mistake.
One way of defining how mascara containers differ from lipstick containers is to say that, although in the case of lipstick containers the solid product to be applied is contained in the applicator element, in the case of mascara containers the product to be applied is a liquid and is contained in the tubular element into which the applicator element penetrates when not in use. To be more precise, the tubular element conventionally includes a wiper that retains excess product picked up by the applicator when it is dipped into the liquid product.
In mascara containers the applicator element in practice includes a cap on which the user acts to manipulate the mascara applicator end. Moreover, the fact that mascara is liquid means that an effective seal must be provided when mascara is not being applied and the cap is engaged over the neck of the container; in practice this seal is obtained by screwing or clipping the cap onto the neck of the container. It follows that the cap forms a substantial portion of the exterior surface of a mascara container when in the closed configuration and that combined movements or significant forces are needed to open the container before applying the mascara.
Other mascara container configurations are known, for example from the documents GB-A-2 132 883 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,371,129, in which the applicator is mounted so that it can be retracted into the tubular element, in which it is immersed completely in the product, and subject to the action of a spring for deploying the applicator end out of the tubular element. In particular this arrangement has the drawbacks mentioned above in respect of lipstick containers operated by a spring.
Similar drawbacks are identified on analyzing other cosmetic product containers known in the art, such as containers for lip-gloss, foundation, eye shadow or blusher, and even nail varnish.